Oh, paint the white of my wedding dress grieving black
For a widow I am, not a bride!
Mourning over my youth forever buried in the depths of these tombs,
As a flower dies without a sip of dew,
I wither away without the warm breath of my beloved sun.

****
Well, that's an outcome of a non stop few day work. I have decided, that I need to work a LOT on the anatomy and skin shading of my characters, and so I tried, in this one, to work the hardest I can on it.
I have done a lot of studies (mainly consisting of looking at myself in a mirror ), tries etc before even beginning to work on this.

I cannot, unfortunately, publish a full WIP of the work, as it's going to be published soon, but I am still sharing some sketches and closeups and a tiny tutorial
Sketches: [link]
Hand WIP: [link]
Rock texturing mini tut: [link]

I do have a story behind this painting, but instead of words, I leave you with this picture alone. I wonder what your interpretations would be

Original size: 6000x9000px; done from scratch in Photoshop with some aid from Painter. This piece was a challenge, mainly to get the technique and mood work together. It took me a LOT of time, especially to get all those little details right.

This is an image made for ImagineFX issue 54, Painter vs Photoshop review article.

Being a bit bored with painting women in dresses, I wanted to make something slightly self-ironic for a change. I don't think I've ever had as much fun painting anything. The trash and chicken took quite a bit of googled reference. Especially the newspapers were hell to get right. [link]

Completed in Painter X, Painter 7, and Photoshop CS. If you're interested in the closeups, they're available here: [link]

Embraced by Ars, the Artist turns into stone and becomes Ars himself, melting with Her into Unity. Or, maybe, Her touch brings the petrified Artist to life, since he cannot achieve full humanity without Her blessing.
Ars, subtle as She is, has a power over the artist, who is helpless and dependant, although rewarded with a laurel wreath. In his suffering he knows that the golden crown is a burden. As much as he would like to break free, he is not able to escape from this slavery. Alone, he cannot exist, so his soul is riven between pain and happiness, protest and devotion. Only united with Ars he can come to the complete and perfect entity - Absolute.

This artwork is the newest and last one I will submit in a long time to teh Deviantart community. I will probably be involved in an illustration project and will not be able to submit my artworks before the book I draw for will be published.

Anyway:
This is my probably most detailed work I have ever done.

It took my a month of non stop work, but I am pretty satisfied with the outcome.

It was a commission and the character is copyrighted to Lisa Lassiter.

I cannot count how many hours it took me, but well, MANY.
Everything painter, several references used and the fields on the bg are pretty manipped being honest cause I got lazy ;]